A computer network virtualization environment (e.g., Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)) may utilize thin clients at the user-end to access virtual desktops associated with users. The virtual desktops may be displayed in virtual machines (VMs) that the users may communicate with through the thin clients. The virtual machines may reside on a host server to which a network switch may be coupled to.
Thin clients may be low-end desktop computers, which may merely be used to connect to the remote desktops through a remote desktop connection (e.g., Microsoft®'s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection) or a web interface. FIG. 1 shows a thin client based computer network virtualization environment 100. The computer network virtualization environment 100 may include a host server 102 on which a number of VMs 1041 . . . 104N reside. The VMs 1041 . . . 104N may be mapped to respective thin clients 1101 . . . 110N through a connection manager 106. The connection manager 106 may be software-based.
The thin clients 1101 . . . 110N may connect to the remote desktops through the computer network 108 (e.g., Internet, Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN)). A remote desktop connection may be required for the purpose, as discussed above. There may be some latency associated with connecting to the remote desktops. Patch management may also be required at the thin client end as the thin clients 1101 . . . 110N may include operating systems.